June 4th: Baths of Caracalla, Keats-Shelley House

It's hard to keep up with all this blogging!

Saturday, the 4th, we started the morning by descending into the ruins of a roman housing complex under a church by the Palatine hill. It was cool, and a real cave-y, underground-y feel, and pretty complex. It had been built over/through three or four times before a church was placed on top of it in the middle ages, so there were doorways and walls and niches and stairs and windows all over the place, and it was impossible to figure out which part had been part of which complex at any given time. There were some frescoes on the wall that were intact.

  Then we headed over to the Circus Maximus (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Circus_Maximus), the place where the Romans used to have their beloved chariot-races. It was... disappointing. Almost nothing is left of it, although it retains its shape (a very skinny ellipse) as a grassy strip. The grass in the center of what would have been the road is worn away, suggesting it's a popular jogging site today. Across the Circus Maximus are the impressive ruins of the old palaces atop the Palatine hill, which we'll see up close eventually. We went up from the CM to the Aventine hill, which was and is residential, to a park where we got a great view of the city.

  After that we walked about a mile down to the Baths of Caracalla (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baths_of_Caracalla), which is a GIGANTIC bath complex from 200ish AD that was, crazily, built in 4 years. A substantial part of the ruins are still standing, allowing visitors to walk through. Apparently the baths used to be a big public gathering place, where people would go for fun in their free time. (Most Romans probably didn't have baths, so bathing was a communal thing.) It was surrounded by shops, so it was also like a mall. The ruins were truly awe inspiring - the biggest I'd ever seen.

  Later, a few of us made our way across the city to the Trevi Fountain (bleh, tourist trap, sketchy people, hot), and the Spanish Steps (also overrated). I managed to not be kidnapped